Clifford the Big Red Dog

Starring: Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall, Izaac Wang, John Cleese, Sienna Guillory, Tony Hale, David Alan Grier, Horatio Sanz, Russell Wong, Paul Rodriguez, Russell Peters, Kenan Thompson, Rosie Perez
Directed by: Walt Becker
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A girl adopts a bright red puppy who suddenly transforms into an enormous size.

Review:

Tim: I was kind of excited to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog with my kids. I wouldn't call myself a Clifford fan, but I remember the books and cartoon from when I was a kid. I didn't think the film looked all that good, but I hoped looks were deceiving. They really weren't. This is the kind classic lowest common denominator filmmaking that movies geared towards younger audiences often get. There might be some decent moments throughout the film, but they're buried deep beneath foolishness. In the end, this movie didn't connect nearly as strong as it should have.

The biggest problem that I had with the movie is that everything feels ratcheted up too high. I know it's meant for kids, but not everything needed to be so over-the-top. There was a way to tell this story with some subtlety and restraint, but director Walt Becker wasn't interested in that. Everything feels so ludicrous when it didn't need to. The movie treats its audience as not just young, but incompetent. So much of the film just caused me to roll my eyes. I really believe most of the film's effectiveness is lost in the way the story is told.

But, I also admit I'm not the target audience. How did my kids react? Well, my three year-old daughter mostly cried and was frightened by Clifford. I know it the movie was too old for her, but she certainly wasn't able to finish it. My six year-old son wasn't into the movie at the beginning. By the end though, he'd gotten emotional at one of the scenes and really ended up liking the movie at the end. He's super smart, but not yet the most discerning viewer.

The cast felt only okay to me. I thought Darby Camp was okay as Emily. She didn't seem like she fit the image of Emily I had, but I wasn't too concerned with that. Her performance was kid cutesy and maybe just slightly better than average. I thought Jack Whitehall did some interesting things, even though I didn't enjoy his performance in the end. I appreciate that he fully committed himself to this role- he really does go all in. His performance is way too over-the-top though. He needed to connect without being such a buffoon. So, I admire his commitment even though he mostly annoyed me. Izaac Wang was solid, mostly bringing an effective performance and at least some restraint. I always like seeing John Cleese and I thought he was good here. I just felt sad that the movie wasn't better for him. Sienna Guillory was okay but forgettable. Tony Hale seemed like he had fun hamming it up, but his antagonist felt more annoying than anything else. He gave a decent performance, but I didn't appreciate how he portrayed the character. Kenan Thompson was fairly funny in a small role. Russell Wong was effective. The rest of the cast felt fine. As a whole, though, there's not much to be excited about from an acting perspective.

I will say that I didn't think the visual effects were all that good. Clifford's red doesn't seem believable (I recognize what I'm saying) and I can't imagine they spent a lot of money on the visuals. It felt like mostly a phone in job. The story is pretty bad and defies all kinds of logic. That hurts the movie. It felt so weird that the writers knew they had the task of bringing Clifford to the big screen... and this is the way they chose to do it. The story is utterly forgettable, completely ridiculous, and doesn't feel unique in the least. It was a perfectly average story that felt redundant and expected.

Kids will likely enjoy Clifford the Big Red Dog, as you would expect. However, for more discerning viewers, it's hard not to feel disappointed in this effort. There's no magic in this movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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